When he was No. 2 on the Yerushalmim city council list ahead of the 2013 municipal elections, Tamir Nir was expecting to spend five years volunteering his time to work for the city's residents and his party's voters. But less than three weeks after the announcement of last month's Knesset elections, it became clear that the head of the list, Yerushalmim founder Rachel Azaria was on her way to the national playground of politics – leaving Nir in charge of the party at the city council. Prior to the 2008 municipal elections, almost no one had heard of Azaria, whose party's platform put an emphasis on local residents' rights and needs, no matter what their religious or political views were. For Nir and the other active members of Yerushalmim, the appeal their platform found among the greater public meant that residents' needs had become something people could no longer disregard. Azaria, Nir and the list's No. 3, Orthodox rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, heard the message loud and clear: People matter, no less – and often more – than regular political discourse. Nir, who's had a long career of working with and for Jerusalem residents, says that his replacing Azaria as deputy mayor seems to constitute evidence that he did right. The 46-year-old, married father of three is an architect by profession, having graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, as well as from pluralistic Torah study center Kolot's program for young Jewish leadership. He also has a teacher's certificate, and a master's degree in Jewish studies from the Hebrew University. At his office in Safra Square's Building 4 – he has yet to pack up and move into the deputy mayor's office – and two months after the premature death of his father, Nir answers In Jerusalem's questions regarding his new position and his plans. How did you proceed once you understood that you were going to head the list at the city council? I had almost three months to get ready – not only me, but the members of the list at the council and the whole movement. For the moment, I am coping with the move from leading a small community – like the one I have founded and led in my neighborhood, in Beit Hakerem [the Reform congregation Ahva Bakerem, of which he is the rabbi] – [to] this change, which brings me to leading a large community. It's a great responsibility that I have now on my shoulders, to continue what Rachel has started and to expand it. It's about... all the issues we believe in.... In fact, it's firstly about how to [create] different politics, how to bring about those things we have dreamed of and worked hard for. That's for the public domain. How will this affect your family life? Will you be even busier than usual outside of home? How is your family reacting? First, the good news: Since as a deputy mayor I will move from being a volunteer representative to receiving a salary, I will not feel so divided between my duties at the council and my duties toward my family, the need to ensure an income. On the other hand, I feel sorry that from now on, there are many things I like to do – teaching, for example – that I will have to stop. Your record pertains mainly to the physical aspects and needs of the city – sustainability, community needs, public needs. Are you going to continue with these goals? Yes, certainly, that is part of my personal agenda – all these things [related to] bringing residents to work together for their own shared benefit, to do things together, to take responsibility and not just wait until someone else cares about your needs. Give us examples. I like to be involved to the last detail – I am not comfortable with a position that might disconnect me, even partially, from being involved at the micro level with the projects I promote. And this is what I want to do even now – to change the system, to establish a different mode of communication between the authorities and the resident. Take, for example, the “Community Compost” project we launched in Beit Hakerem. What does it say? It says forget about old bad habits, that your garbage is not your business – you throw it out and somebody else takes care of it from there. With that project, we, the residents, take responsibility for our garbage, together with neighbors, with the support of the municipality, to become part of the process. This is a totally different approach to the relationship between the residents and the authorities; this is community, and this is the type of change that I want to introduce in additional aspects of that relationship. So what you're saying is that you want to give the residents of Jerusalem the tools to become autonomous – not just to stand up for their rights, but to take part in all processes and aspects? That is correct. And it goes beyond garbage and compost. It says, 'We are not customers, we are residents, and we are also responsible for everything – garbage, roads, culture, everything.' Isn't that something you might expect from a strong community, but something that wouldn't be possible in lessstructured communities? On the contrary. This kind of community can still be found in lower-income groups, where this [attitude] of solidarity still exists and hasn't been replaced by the “customer” approach. And that is the model I will strive to consolidate and develop. Tell us about the Yerushalmim model, which is a local model for different religious groups to join forces and work together. This is very “Jerusalemite” – it's not frequently found elsewhere. Azaria is a liberal Orthodox feminist, you are a Reform rabbi, and your partner on the list, Aaron Leibowitz, is even more Orthodox... while those after you in the list are totally secular. How is it going to work with you at the head? I hope it is going to work for the best, and that is connected in large part to my personal biography. I was born in Jerusalem to a Mizrahi [North African] family – religious, but open and tolerant. By the time I was 10, we moved to Gush Etzion, where I grew up and went later to a hesder yeshiva. Later on, I became secular, and then... I went to a Reform rabbinical college.... That is the core of the Yerushalmim way – the capacity of inclusion, and not separation into alienated groups. True, this is a typical Jerusalemite situation, but we hope to make it wider and take it – with Rachel now in the Knesset – to all the citizens of this country. In which other issues does this approach exist here? Take the situation in this city. We are in the midst of a bloody conflict, but we [the various sides] are also residents of this city – we have, on the ground, shared issues. We stop being sectorial; we live together, and we can even gain something from one another. You can see it in our relationship with the representatives of the haredi sector – there is mutual respect, despite all the differences. What would I gain from complaining that they are here? I'm better off trying to reach understandings and agreements. Our responsibility, as we see it in Yerushalmim, is to find solutions to daily problems as residents. We do not solve the conflict, but there are plenty of problems, on a daily level, that we can solve together, and that's exactly what I intend to continue and develop even more in my new position. •
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)